In for example laundries, garments are conveyed on garment hangers with hooks. In connection with transport of the garment hangers, separators are used to separate the garment hangers from each other and convey separate garment hangers forward. Such a separator can take the form of a feeding device that picks a separate garment hanger from a plurality of garment hangers and feeds the garment hanger forward. As the separate garment hangers are fed forward, a distance can be created between individual garment hangers. Typically, the separator or feeding device engages the hooks of the garment hangers. A problem for such a feeding device is that different garment hangers may have hooks of varying dimensions. The hooks are often formed from a circular cylindrical metal wire and different hooks can be formed from metal wires of different diameter. Therefore, the feeding device must be able to engage hooks of varying dimensions/different diameter. In the Danish patent publication 162932 B, a separator device is disclosed that is said to be able to accommodate hooks of different thickness. In the device according to the above-mentioned publication, one hook at the time is fed forward while the next hook to be fed forward is held in place.
It is an object of the current invention to provide a separator device for threadlike objects such as hooks for garment hangers. It is an additional object of the invention to provide a separator device that can feed threadlike objects forward one at the time and that is able to accommodate threadlike objects of varying dimension, in particular such hooks for garment hangers that are made of metal wire of different diameter. It is also an object of the invention to provide a system for conveying and feeding garment hangers. Furthermore, it is an object of the invention to provide a method for feeding threadlike objects such as hooks for garment hangers.